Lucknow, Mar 3 At least seven people were killed in separate road accidents in Uttar Pradesh on Holi, police said today.

In Barabanki, five people were killed in three road accidents. According to Circle Officer (Sadar) Sushil Kumar, all three accidents involved motorcyclists, including one in which two people were visiting the district for a ‘Holi Milan’ programme.

Two people died in Banda after their motorcycle collided with the official car of the city magistrate, police said.

Jammu, Mar 3 (PTI) A fresh landslide today blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Ramban town, officials said, adding that efforts were on to make the nearly 300-km-road traffic worthy.

A landslide struck the highway, the only all-weather road connecting Kashmir with the rest of India, in Maroog area at around 1030 hours, forcing authorities to suspend traffic on the highway, traffic department officials said.

The traffic on the highway had been restricted to one way for a fortnight and only Jammu-bound vehicles were allowed to run on the road from Srinagar this morning.

The officials said a road clearance operation was underway despite drizzle and efforts were on to remove the blockade from the highway as soon as possible.

Incessant rainfall lashed parts of Jammu and Kashmir, including the highway over the past two days, triggering landslides at several places on the Ramban-Banihal stretch.

Australian authorities said on Friday, March 2, 2018 that the sea ice cover in Antarctica has dropped to its second-lowest record.The latest figures may be a confirmation to a disturbing trend in global melting.

WHAT IS THE LATEST RECORD?

The daily ice area recorded was 2.15 million square kilometres, which is an all-time low.

According to Dr Rob Massom from the Australian Antarctic Division and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem CRC, the sea ice reached its lowest point on 18 February.

The recent photos show the aerial view of western Antarctic ice which is scored with cracks.

PREVIOUS RECORD

This year’s summer low sea ice extent almost broke the existing minimum record of 2.07 million square kilometres, set in March last year when the extent was approximately 27 per cent below the average annual minimum since 1979

The sea ice coverage has been tracking well below the long-term average since August 2016

In 2017, the winter-time maximum sea ice extent was the second lowest on record at 18.05 million square kilomtres following closely on the heels of successive record highs in 2012, 2013 and 2014